China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week

cirr · Oct 17, 2014

China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week

By by Leonard David, SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist

October 14, 2014 11:41 AM

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China is preparing to launch a mission next week that will help pave the way for an ambitious lunar sample-return effort.

The upcoming launch of the Chang'e 4 mission is expected to take place Oct. 23 from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, and will apparently send an experimental, recoverable probe to lunar orbit and back. The goal is to validate re-entry technology for Chang'e 5, a future robotic mission that will land on the moon, collect samples and return those specimens to Earth.

According to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, the soon-to-fly craft is a backup probe of Chang'e 3 — the nation's first moon lander and rover, which successfully touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor in December 2013. [Most Amazing Moon Missions of All Time]

Chang'e 4 will be adapted to verify technologies needed for Chang'e 5, the third step in China's methodical moon-landing program, according to Chinese news agencies.

The challenging Chang'e 5 mission, set to launch around 2018, will require technological breakthroughs in numerous areas, such as moon landing and takeoff, sample collection and encapsulation, lunar-orbit rendezvous and docking and high-speed Earth re-entry, Chinese officials have said.

"We have begun to study how the Chang'e 5 will blast off fromthe moon and dock with the in-orbit re-entry capsule," said Wang Pengji, a space expert at the China Academy of Space Technology.

Long March booster being readied to support China's next mooncraft takeoff this month, dedicated …

China’s newest moon probe arrived in August at the Xichang launch site, according to a statement from the administration.

The state-run Xinhua news agency has reported that the plan is for the spacecraft to be launched to lunar orbit, then return to Earth at a blistering speed of more than 25,000 mph (40,230 km/h). It will parachute onto terra firma to complete its journey.

Onboard China's moon-bound booster is a hitchhiking payload provided by the European space technology company OHB AG. This private "4M mission" to the moon is dedicated to OHB founder Manfred Fuchs, who died earlier this year. (4M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission.)

Technical management of the 4M mission is led by LuxSpace of Luxembourg, an affiliate of OHB AG. LuxSpace chiefly develops microsatellites and actively participates in the OHB System-led Small GEO initiative.

The 31-pound (14 kilograms) 4M probe is designed to fly by the moon and then return Earthward.

Tucked inside the small spacecraft are several scientific instruments, including a radio beacon that permits the sending of messages while testing a new approach to locate the spacecraft. LuxSpace is encouraging radio amateurs around the globe to receive the transmissions and send in data.

An additional instrument will measure radiation levels throughout the satellite's trajectory around the moon, using a special chip provided by Spanish company iC-Málaga.

The 4M lunar flyby amateur radio payload was shipped to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Oct. 2.

cirr · Oct 17, 2014

All Systems Go For China's Moon Mission

Dan Weisman |Oct 16, 2014 09:47 PM EDT

(Photo : CASC) Final preps took place Thursday for a China moon mission scheduled to launch Oct. 23 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Final preps took place Thursday for China's moon mission scheduled to launch Oct. 23 from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

China space scientists planned to send a prototype recoverable lunar probe into lunar orbit and Earth re-entry. The test is designed to validate technology to be used in the Chang'e 5 mission scheduled to collect lunar samples in 2018 and bring them home to Earth.

Wang Pengji of the China Academy of Space Technology was quoted as saying, "We have begun to study how the Chang'e 5 will blast off from the moon and dock with the in-orbit re-entry capsule."

The specific model being tested next week is an updated version of the Chang'e 3's backup probe. The unmanned Chang'e 3 made history in December 2013 when it became China's first rover and lander to touch down on the moon.

The 14-kilogram (31-pound) moon probe arrived at Xichang in August. It will be launched into lunar orbit before returning to Earth at a speed of more than 40,000 km/h, or about 25,000 miles per hour. The booster will take a European Space Agency payload to the moon before returning to Earth around Halloween.

The Chang'e rover series was named after the Chinese mythological moon goddess. The rover itself was called the Yutu in Chinese, or Jade Rabbit.

Still to go is the tweener in the Chang'e series, the Chang'e 4. That mission will test technologies adapted from Chang'e 3 for the Chang'e 5 slated for a 2018 rendezvous with the Moon. Some reports say the Chang'e 4 may undergo a name change to the Chang 5 T1.

Between then and now, engineers need to fine-tune numerous technologies related to a soft lunar landing and takeoff along with sample collection and storage techniques. Other systems needing to be adapted and tested include docking and high-speed re-entry networks.

Aside from the European payload that made its way to Xichang two weeks ago, next week's mission has been equipped with numerous scientific instrumentation, including new techniques related to location reporting and an old technology in the form of a radio beacon to aid in message transmission. Additional instrumentation uses new chip technology designed to monitor radiation levels as the probe circles the moon.